


Demons and Dreams

by MindKnox



Series: The Book Of Turbulence [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Badass Dana Ward, Badass Kate Marsh, Cults, Demons, F/F, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Girls with Guns, Hell, Kate Marsh Lives, Kate Marsh takes Pastor K's place [Fusion], Possum Springs, Post-Canon, Post-Save Chloe Price Ending, Pre-Relationship, References to Oxenfree (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25456171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindKnox/pseuds/MindKnox
Summary: After Mae falls into an uninterruptible slumber one night, her rescue is  left in the hands of Pastor Kate Marsh and Dana Ward to rescue her from Hell's nightmarish demons, a maniacal cult set on attaining true power through the land's unholy magic, and one of the Great Old Ones herself - the Black Goat.
Relationships: Kate Marsh/Dana Ward, Mae Borowski & Kate Marsh
Series: The Book Of Turbulence [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863685
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Demons and Dreams

A neon world under the black light sun has once again become home for Mae Borowski. For the past few hours, she has roamed this familiar place in search of music: the means of getting home as she learned three-and-a-half years prior.

But that music is gone. Times have changed. There are no means of getting home now. There is only the void above, having claimed the sky.

And in that sky, a legion of crimson eyes stalk Mae’s movement. She is both their prisoner, and their bait.

* * *

On the outside of the dream, in the real world, in Possum Springs, Mae has been travelling the neon world for three days now. And she has not woken up. She hasn’t even stirred. Her parents and friends have tried everything to wake her up.

Thus, it is up to two brave girls, armed with guns and some prior information that Max provided, to travel down to what could very well be Hell in order to save Mae.

Their names are Pastor Kate Marsh and Dana Ward. Survivors of a Storm from Nowhere, and now denizens of Possum Springs.

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, Hell is not quite empty. The condemned dead roam the streets as the skies above them burn bright. Bars litter the storefronts of this realm for miles on end. They are the darkened dens where sinners long gone can embrace vice… and maybe a nice conversation or two; the dead still live and still have to socialize.

Kate and Dana walk into one such bar, raising the attention of the slovenly horned demon at the bar as he rinses a couple glasses by the sink up front.

The two take their seats at the bar, much to the confusion of the bartender, and Kate offers him a simple “Hi.”

“What can I get you two ladies?”, the bartender asks before rinsing out another glass.

“We’d like information. Everything you know.” Kate holds up a hand-drawn image of her friend for the bartender to see. “Mae Borowski. Where is she?”

The bartender sighs and lowers his face. “Are you those two girls who have been rampaging down the street, interrogating every bartender and customer you see?”

The two girls look at each other, confused about what to say next. Dana lies with a nervous chuckle, “No. We’re new, y’know.”

“We have a group chat.” The bartender crosses his arms, a quiet anger slowly settling on his face. “And we talk. But to answer your question: no, we haven’t heard of this Jay-”

“Mae”, Kate corrects him.

“We don’t know shit about her. Now please, get out.” A rebellious smirk grows on Kate’s face, much to the dismay of the bartender. “Look, we don’t want any trouble, none of us. Just leave please.”

Rustles from all around the establishment rumble as the demons in the building prepare for a fight. Kate cracks her knuckles and smiles further before declaring, “Ah, just the fight we’ve been looking fo-”

Before she can even finish that sentence, Dana takes the initiative of grabbing Kate by her hand and pulling her out of the bar. She says to her, “Dana, wait! We can take them!”

“No, we can’t. And even if we could, it’d be better if we just stop while we’re ahead. We’re sorry!”, she says to the bartender before the two manage to get out through the front door.

Kate quickly manages to escape Dana’s grip and crosses her arms in a bit of upset. “We had them. Look at us back at the past couple bars!”

Dana focuses her eyes on her friend and tells her, “This isn’t like you, Kate. Just take a breather.” Kate sighs and looks around at her surroundings, still amazed and afraid of it all. “Are you alright?”

Looking up at the fiery skies, Kate answers, “It’s just a lot to take in. And poor Mae, she’s probably scared out of her mind.”

“I’m sure she is. So we have to go on forward. We have to find her, and these fights aren’t going to save her.” Dana notices that Kate’s eyes are full of rage, at this notion of Hell that she can barely believe. At a burning rage manifested solely from Hell’s existence, and maintained by the questions she is pondering inside. Dana gently holds Kate’s shoulder and tells her with a smile, “Though I’m surprised at your skills with that shotgun. You're a badass.”

Kate lets out a soft giggle and adds, “Thanks. Chloe taught me a few months ago.”

Dana pats Kate on her back, looking into her lovely eyes. But before either of them lose track, Dana swiftly declares, “So if we’re gonna go looking for your friend, we need some details. You know her, right?”

“I know she was being chased by some cult a few years ago, and they hurt her. She came to the Church, and I brought her to the Hospital a little later. But then her friends helped blow them up.”

Dana’s eyes widen as she asks in disbelief, “She blew up a cult?”

“Not exactly. More trapped them in the mines under Possum Springs with some dynamite.”

Dana strokes her chin in astonishment and devious curiosity. “You’ve kept good company.”

“You should know.” Kate gently glares at her with a quick smirk before continuing, “There’s also this journal of hers, and what her friends told me.” Kate pulls out a journal from her jacket and flutters through its pages. Both she and Dana are confronted by a drawing of the Black Goat, sitting amongst the stars in absolute indifference to whoever it sees. “This was what the Cult worshipped. It says here she saw the Black Goat in a dream she had after confronting them with her friends. But after that night, it’s like it has been haunting her in her sleep. No matter the subject and no matter the night, it’s always there. Like Freddy Kreuger.”

Dana sighs with a laugh. Looking around at the area around them, she asks Kate, “So, you wanna try any more bars?”

“There needs to be someone who knows something.” A shadow forms over the girls. Winged in shape, it grows closer. Both girls manage to duck just in time before it lands on them, falling over and looking at their opponent. “Shoot!”

Dana and Kate pull out their MK. 2 pistols and start firing on the winged demon, hitting it several times. Needles filled with tranquilizing agents pierce its body, forcing the demon to use its wings as cover. This prompts Dana to yell, “What the Hell is that?!” Of course, she continues shooting as she knows the obvious answer.

As the demon emerges from its cover, it charges at the two once more. It moves slower with every step, as its wounds take hold. Eventually, within a matter of seconds, it falls to the ground, speaking some mix of snores and growls. Kate swiftly tends to her friend and asks, while holding her gently, “Dana, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just… Christ! No offense, but…” She sets her eyes upon the downed demon in disbelief. She could handle a storm and even Hell itself, but this is a whole new level of weird. “Is that thing still awake?”

Hearing its roars, Kate cautiously steps closer and closer. She asks the demon with a calm rub of its wounded wings, “Can you talk?” It growls, in obvious anger and primal fear. “Seriously, can you speak?” It looks into Kate’s eyes with every bit of strength it has left, before the demon’s body goes limp.

Dana watches as Kate closes its eyes and offers the demon a small prayer in its sleep. They’re both shaking, terrified at the power they held over this other being. Her words quivering, Dana asks Kate. “Do you think he’s connected to this Black Goat?”

“It makes the most sense. Let’s go.” The two run onwards through this strange dimension.

A brisk stroll through one of Hell’s winding avenues leads right down an alleyway of diminishing light. Glowing on a wooden sign in fluorescent chalk is a message, and it is exactly what both Kate and Dana are looking for.

They enter this humble shop, and an elderly humanoid, sitting at a coffee table with the latest copy of the Hell Post newspaper in his hands, and with his skin adorned in stars and dark matter, says to them with a reverberation across the establishment, “Greetings, children.”

Kate points at him to ask, “You’re the Visioner?”

“Is it on the sign?”

 _It was_ , Kate motions to him with a sly shrug of her shoulders. “We were hoping you can tell us the whereabouts of Mae Borowski.”

“You also came to learn of the demon that attacked you earlier.”

“That too.”

The Visioner leans back in his chair, eyes still set on the paper he’s reading, and answers their queries: “They are an affiliate of the Black Goat, yes. And this Mae Borowski you speak of is shrouded in shadows. I cannot see her clearly.” Kate crosses her arms in defeat. “But I can see a shroud of shadows. I am certain that is your Mae.”

She promptly perks up and offers Dana a high-five, which she accepts. “That makes sense. Where is she?”

“In the Neon Region. But be warned that entry is a passage for their assassins to strike. Parasitic in nature, they will latch onto you until your dying days. They will hunt you down to the ends of the earth.”

“We’ll take our chances.”

“Very well. Good luck.” The Visioner raises his palms, summoning a cup of coffee for himself.

The two girls leave, with Kate set on her resolve. But Dana crosses her arms, shaking once more. “What’s wrong, Dana?”

The words escape her mouth, but she doesn’t know how true they are: “We can’t do this, Kate. I mean-”

“We have to.”

“Yeah! But that guy said we’d be hunted by ASSASSINS from HELL if we go after the Black Goat. We don’t even know WHAT this Black Goat even is! I hate to say it, honestly, but is this even worth it at this point? At what point do we just cut our losses?”

“He might be right. And you are DEFINITELY right. But Mae needs our help. We have to help her.” Kate sees the fear in Dana’s eyes, so she holds her hand with both of hers. “Please, we have to. She needs us, and I need you.”

“Okay.” Dana gives Kate a smirk, gripping her hand heartfully.

“And besides, does the Black Goat have any time travellers in his contacts? I highly doubt it.” The two giggle together before heading right for their next destination. Determination flows through them, however uneasy it may be.

* * *

Those crimson eyes still follow Mae’s every move, though she has now taken a seat on the ground to rest.

A voice, grovely and garbled yet understandable despite it all, says to the girl, “Your friends are going to die.”

Mae looks up at the sky and asks it, “What?”

The Black Goat, with horns on her head that twirl and bend outward for miles, manifests from the air in the sky. She looks down at Mae and answers, “Yes. I will make sure of it.”

“You’ve never talked before. Or at least, I’ve never understood you until now. How is this happening?”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing will once we’ve accomplished our mission.” The Black Goat raises a hand, summoning twelve robed figures onto her palm. They are led by one who wears a helmet with blue markings, deer antlers, and a red spiral between their eyes. She tells these disciples, “Children. I call upon you now. Find the girls, for they are enroute to my domain. Bring me their heads, for I am rather hungry.”

The Black Goat lowers her hand to the ground and the cloaked cultists hastily run to their targets, with their helmeted leader raising her cane to point the direction.

* * *

Kate and Dana charge forward, guns blazing as demons fall before their gunfire. They rain from the dark skies, crashing against the pavement below.

Suddenly, footsteps clatter against the floor, approaching closer and closer every second. The two girls take cover, sticking closely together as they do.

The woman in charge, with her voice filled with faith and practice but masked in a metal helmet, speaks to them. “Oh, sinful children; minds filled with sinful thoughts. We know of your intentions, and they will simply not come true. Instead, you will face the consequences of your reckless actions. The Black Goat wills it. As does I.”

 _I know her_ , Kate thinks to herself. She grabs a grenade from her jacket and pulls the pin on it. Tossing it at the cult, it emanates a thick blue mist.

Quickly, the helmeted leader of the cult twirls her staff over her head to divert the mist. But it has already taken its toll on some of her weaker associates. Two cultists fall to the wayside, sound asleep. _Sleeping gas_ , she figures. _Damned crafty girl_. She rushes Kate and Dana, taking needles to her chest without pause.

“Why won’t she go down?!”, Dana yells. She sees that, one by one, the cultists are dropping on their faces as the tranquilizers take hold. Suddenly, she has an idea. Instead of aiming at her helmeted head and presumably armored body, she switches from the MK. 2 pistol to the Rasp Twinbarrel Shotgun in her inventory. A shot from this to the cult leader’s chest sends the villainess flying away onto her back.

Kate joins in and fires at the cult leader’s head, knocking her out as it rings violently.

The two girls high-five again, and Dana swiftly pulls off the helmet of the leader’s head. Long gray hair spills from the helmet, and the face beneath it scowls at the girls. She points at Kate and angrily shouts, “I know you, Ms. Marsh! A survivor of God’s will! And a friend of hers too. Don’t worry, in time, Ms. Caulfield shall be here too. Burning. Screaming. Paying for her sins. Blood for bl-”

Looking around in confusion and surprise, Dana looks to Kate and asks, “Who even is this?”

“Lisbeth Fischer. That crazy lady from Nevada I told you about.” They’d met a few years ago, sometime before her church in Haven Point mysteriously burnt to the ground. She had travelled with some college friends to Nevada upon hearing word of an Angel with the ability to lift objects of great weight with his faith alone.

Lisbeth remembers Kate’s disbelief in young Daniel’s gift. This was before the world at large knew, and before Max revealed her own gift to Kate. “Yes. An ignorant nonbeliever in the power of the Angel. How did it feel to be so wrong?”

“What is she talking about now?”

“That Daniel Diaz kid who blew up the Wall”, Kate answers.

Dana clicks her tongue and nods her head. “Ah. Good kid.”

Lisbeth begins to laugh. “He was a FOOL! Too hesitant to accept the help I was offering. But look at where I am now. I don’t need him. None of us have, and none of us will.”

Kate rolls her eyes and asks, “Where’s the Black Goat?”

“You want the Black Goat?” A sly smile appears on Lisbeth’s face, as she raises a middle finger to the two girls. “Here’s your Black Goat.”

Dana has no time for more of her games, so she raises her shotgun up to Lisbeth’s head. “Talk.”

Fischer groans and tells them boredly, “He’s up ahead.”

Kate pats the crooked reverend on the head, telling her, “And so are you. C’mon!” They run forward, past more demons and straggling cultists who they dispatch with ease.

Mae sees the duo arrive from the cage containing her, and yells to them, “Pastor K! Don’t come any closer! It’s a trap!”

The two slow down as the Black Goat manifests from darkness and holds the cage in her palm. She stares into their eyes and declares, “You have come to die.”

Kate shakes her head and answers, “No. I’m kinda over that. We both are.” Dana nods her head at the Black Goat, angering it further.

“No one is, for no one can escape it. Not without a cost.” The legion of crimson eyes glow in the sky behind the Black Goat, staring down at the two heroines.

Kate points at herself with a thumb and tells the demon, “We’re here to save Mae. I’m not listening to any more of your nonsense.” And just as quickly, she and Dana begin shooting at the Black Goat. And yet, each round does nothing to phase her.

The Black Goat smiles a sinister grin, taking a glance at Mae every so often. “You cannot save her. She could not save herself. And so, she is mine. But at least you are here. I was wondering when my lunch would arrive.”

As the two reload and resume shooting, Kate says to Dana, “Go get Mae!”

While Dana rushes over to the Black Goat’s position, the demon taunts the two, asking them, “You think you two are good enough to save the day? That you two are heroes? There are no heroes.”

Kate scoffs and rebutts, “I can name a few.”

At the same time, Dana is climbing up to try and reach Mae’s cage, telling her with a shout, “We’re coming, Mae!”

Mae sits in her cage and fears that they won’t be able to save her. But a savior does arrive, manifesting into the cage from static and white noise. They are two women in the body of one - a Chimera, if you will - with long hair in streaks of black and blonde on their head. They speak with two voices, one on top of the other, and are cloaked in robes of denim and silk. They see Mae, and tell her with a smile and a gentle tone, “There you are.”

Mae yells in alarm, “What the hell?”, as she tries to scutter away from the Chimera. But once they offer the young girl their hand, Mae calms down and accepts their help.

Dana looks to Kate and asks, “Who’s she?”

Kate shrugs her shoulders and rushes forward. “Let’s find out!”

The Chimera walks through the cage, undetected by the Black Goat, and looks to their old friends, calling out to them: “Kate! Dana!” They then fly over to Dana and take her hand, which she cautiously accepts.

As the Chimera flutters down to the ground, setting Mae and Dana down gently, Kate remarks, “You know us.”

The Chimera does not hesitate to hug Kate, also pulling Dana in for the hug. “God, have we missed you guys”, they say before snapping their fingers. A triangular rift forms in front of the four of them, and the sound of static accompanies it closely. The Chimera says to the three girls, ”Time to go home.”

The Black Goat falls to her knees and tries to grab the opponents, only for the stranger to quickly summon an army of butterflies to attack the demon. She screams angrily, “NO! YOU WILL NOT LEAVE US!”, and the world around them rumbles violently.

“That’s the plan! Move it, move it!” The Chimera pushes for the girls to leave, and so they do. Mae leaps out of the portal first, with Dana speed walking over to it with Kate’s hand in hers.

Before she can leave, Kate asks them, “Who are you?”

The Chimera can only shrug, sigh, and say one last thing: “We’ll stay in touch.” And with a gentle shove, the two fall out of the Neon Region back into the real world.

The Black Goat sets her sights on the Chimera, rage in their starry eyes. “You think the day is saved?”

The Chimera shakes her head. “Not yet. But you and your dumb dream-demon friends are in for an asskicking.”

“So are you.” The Black Goat raises a fist and prepares to crush them under it with a swift movement.

“Nope. Byyyyyye!” In the blink of an eye, the Chimera is gone, having vanished into thin air as she waved her hand goodbye.

The Black Goat sighs to herself, enraged at this minor setback. “If this is how you want to play…” The Black Goat’s eyes bleed a black, viscous liquid as it seeks another victim. And just as quickly, it finds one. In Beaver Creek, Oregon. Close enough for her allies to hone in perfectly. “Then let us play.”

* * *

The three have landed in Jenny’s Field, gently and close to one another. Mae raises her arms in excitement as she feels that Possum Spring feeling in her hands. It kinda sucks, but it is her home. “We’re home!!!”

Dana sits back and rests against Kate’s chest. She sighs and asks with concern in her voice, “You okay, Katie?”

Kate blushes as she faces this current predicament, and answers, “I’m fine.”

Mae walks over to the two and tells the Pastor, “Thanks a bundle, Pastor K.” Seeing the two girls laying so closely - reminding her of her own girlfriend - she asks, “I take it I should leave you two be?”

Kate has her eyes set on Dana, and she has no intention of moving them away. She tells Mae, “If you’d like.”

It seems the younger girl has already taken a headstart, waving the duo goodbye. “See you around! I’ll tell my mom you said ‘Hi’!”

Dana too keeps her sights set on Kate - _good ol’ adrenaline being both of their wingwomen_ \- and asks, “You busy tonight?”

Kate slowly nods her head. “If you’re asking what I’m thinking you’re asking… Yes.” Quick to correct herself, she adds, “I mean, no. I’m not busy, but yes to what you wanna do. Dinner?”

“Cool.” A smile forms on Dana’s mouth, and she quickly takes her chance to share a kiss with Kate. And it’s a kiss that Kate returns.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story! Please leave comments and kudos if you have any to leave!


End file.
